Missed chance
by i1976
Summary: A post-poned wedding because of the hives: after her nearly wedding with Enos, Daisy starts to realize what she missed. Is becoming Enos' wife so important to her? Will she find another chance to marry him?
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER 1**

_Daisy unbuttoned the first button of Enos' tight, "Hey sugar, relax, we're husband and wife, now," gently smiling at his jitters._

_"I hope I'm not goin' to die before the dawn, Dais," he chuckled, helping her to unbutton his shirt, "I also hope I'm not goin' to wake up realizing it's just a dream."_

_"It isn't a dream, Enos," she looked into his eyes, "we're husband and wife. Finally," her caring and sweet eyes stared into his ones, her way to look at him when they were alone._

_After her hands accomplished to unbutton his shirt, button after button, her fingers slid on his bare chest, "When you told it's not just on your face, you didn't lie," she held back a laugh, her right forefinger tracing a line connecting all the hives' signs on his skin, "does it hurt?"_

_He shivered under her touch, "Hurt? No, it itches. Do you think I could scratch myself to death, Daisy?"_

_She let her laugh go, "No Enos. I think you aren't goin' to die because of the hives," she turned, showing him her shoulders, "and now, help me to take it off, please."_

_His hand reached her wedding dress' zipper, and, after a brief but intense fight, he managed to pull it down, and the dress slid down with a soft rustling, showing her body to him. When she turned to him, he was scratching his nape, "I'm goin' to die, tonight, I know it."_

_"Enos, you've already seen my unmentionables, haven't you?" her hands on her hips she smiled amused._

_"Your unmentionables… yeah… hanging outside, but not you wearing just your unmentionables, Daisy," he kept on scratching his nape until she took his hand in hers._

_"It's your turn, honey," she let his hand go and she undressed him: jacket, shirt… but when her hands reached his trousers he had a step back._

_"Uh, slowly, please. I'm shy," he blushed and the new red on his skin swallowed the hives' marks._

_"Ok, slowly, step by step" she walked closer him, slowly wrapping her arms around his bare chest, her hands pressed against his spine between his shoulder blades and her face buried against his chest as her lips gently touched his skin._

_He stiffened and he held his breath, then, kiss after kiss, he relaxed, closing his eyes, "I can't believe it's really happening."_

_She stopped exploring his skin with her lips and she looked up at him, smiling, "It's happening 'cause I managed to convince you to get married despite the hives, otherwise you would've postponed everything just to go to Doc Appleby to find a cure for the hives, and I didn't want to wait for."_

_His eyes became piercing and deep, as never before, "Did you want to get married so badly?"_

_She parted from him just few inches, looking at him in confusion, "Yeah! Why are you asking me something like that? I love you, Enos, and it's normal I wanted to get married so badly. I was tired to wait, and I can say, proudly, I dragged you to the altar, one way or another."_

_His serious look turned to sweet and happy, "You know, it's the first time you tell me that you love me, Daisy."_

_"Really?" she opened her eyes wide, "Is it really the first time?"_

_He nodded, "Yeah, it's the first time, and it's why…" he stopped as his hand reached again his nape, not because of the itching, this time, but because of his being uncomfortable, "…it's why I tried to call the wedding off because of the hives, though I already know how to cure it. Antihistamin, simply."_

_The implicit truth in his words slapped her._

_"Did you try to call the wedding off 'cause you weren't sure of my love, Enos? Wasn't it clear? Hasn't it always been clear?"_

_He looked away, keeping on scratching his nape, "I wasn't so sure, yeah. But you insisted so much I started to believe that, behind your insistence, there was love, and, in effect, you really dragged me to the altar."_

_She took his hand in hers, again, stopping his uncomfortable scratching, "So, you decided to marry me when you finally realized that… I love you, otherwise…" she squeezed his hand._

_"… otherwise I would've called the wedding off. I couldn't accept you asked me to marry you for saving me from goin' to jail, and then for pity. I couldn't accept it for my pride, and I couldn't accept it for my love and my respect for you. I'd never let you sacrifice for me, Daisy," his right hand still in hers, he caressed her hair with his left hand, "and now you've finally confessed your love. I'm happy, and relieved."_

_"Oh Enos, you're the most complicated and confusing man of the whole world," she let his right hand go and she hugged him, bridging that sudden and brief physical and emotional distance, "so, did you take your antihistamin?"_

_"Oh gosh, no, I had no time after the wedding and, you know, a little collateral effect of those pills is drowsiness… and I suppose you wouldn't be happy to spend this night looking at me sleeping deeply in our bed, and, well, I don't want to spend this night sleeping hard," he chuckled, "I prefer to scratch myself to death."_

_"Enos, you're really something else," she laughed amused, choking her laugh against his chest, then she parted again from him, turning her shoulders to him, "may you unbutton my bra, sugar?"_

_"It's the first time I unbutton a bra but, yeah, I suppose I can do it," his hands reached his bra and he managed to unbutton it despite his gently trembling. When she turned again to him, his eyes opened wide, and for the second time his blushing hid the hives' marks, "you're beautiful, Daisy."_

_As they approached to the bed, she kissed his lips, a gently kiss changing into a voracious and passionate kiss, as they were hungry of it and just of it, a starving lasting years, a starving lasting their whole life._

_That night they knew each other as never before: every inch of their skin, every muscle and every curve._

_And Enos showed her he wasn't so clumsy and shy as she thought, after all._

* * *

When Daisy woke up, the morning after, she still felt Enos' hands on her skin.

She yawned and she stirred, smiling, her eyes closed in the sunlight filling the room.

She reached her arm out to feel his body near her, but she met just the mattress: has her hubby already got up and was he cooking breakfast?

Smell of scrambled eggs made her smile, anticipating their first breakfast as husband and wife. She was Enos Strate's wife: it sounded great.

She opened her eyes and she looked at the room around her: her bedroom at the farm? Why was she in her bedroom at the farm?

Reality slapped her: a dream, just a dream.

She blushed 'cause of that vivid and erotic dream, more real than reality, then she realized the sad truth: Enos called the wedding off because of the hives, and she wasn't Enos Strate's wife.

"_I couldn't accept you asked me to marry you for saving me from goin' to jail, and then for pity. I couldn't accept it for my pride, and I couldn't accept it for my love and my respect for you. I'd never let you sacrifice for me, Daisy."_

Not just a vivid and erotic dream due to the confused previous day, but a way her subconscious was poking to her conscience: if she had insisted to marry him, if she had dragged him to the altar…

… if she had simply told him what he was waiting for: "I love you, Enos."

Holding back her tears and disappointment, realizing her missed chance (and her responsibility in that missed chance), Daisy got up.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

Daisy entered the kitchen, yawning and stirring. "Good morning uncle Jesse," she approached her uncle who was sitting at the table, she stopped behind him, her hands on his shoulders, she bent forward and she kissed his cheek.

"Good morning Daisy," uncle Jesse turned to his niece, smiling, "breakfast is ready."

"Thanks." Moving inside the little kitchen, Daisy took a plate from the cupboard and she walked to the stove, a frying pan with scrambled eggs on it. That scent: she recalled her strange dream; she rested the empty plate on the table and she shook her head, her appetite totally gone.

"Something's wrong, Daisy?"

"I ain't hungry, uncle Jesse," turning around, she walked again to the cupboard, avoiding uncle Jesse's look as if he could read her dream through her eyes, she took her cup and she filled it with coffee, "just a cup of coffee, for me, this morning."

"Are you feeling sick?" uncle Jesse rested his fork in his plate, looking carefully at her, "your cheeks are red," his hand gently touched her forehead, checking her temperature, "no fever. Are you sure you're fine?"

Daisy blushed even more, her eyes down while her blushing betrayed her discomfort, "I'm OK… just…" she shook her head, keeping her eyes down, "a bad night. I didn't sleep very well, probably 'cause I was still…," she stopped, knowing that any word could betray her.

"You're right. Yesterday was a strange day: the charges against Enos, the thieves, the wedding…," uncle Jesse had a deep sigh, "but for sure it wasn't the strangest day we've faced," he smiled, resting his hand on Daisy's forearm.

Daisy answered his smile, still avoiding his eyes, "Yeah, a strange day…," she drank her coffee and she stood up, "Gotta go, now. See you later," she kissed again uncle Jesse's cheek and she left the kitchen, her eyes carefully avoiding her uncle's eyes.

Looking at the door closing behind Daisy's shoulders, uncle Jesse half closed his eyes, thoughtfully, "Something's wrong with that girl," he sipped his coffee, "better keep an eye on her."

* * *

What's the sense of her dream?

Uncle Jesse was right: the previous day was really frenetic, too many things happened, so many things that, when she went to bed, she was still in a strange state of excitement.

Yeah, that state of excitement was a perfect explanation of that strange and vivid dream.

SO vivid!

A sudden heat rose from her feet to her face, and she felt like if she was steaming.

The cracking of glass and a sudden pain in her right forefinger woke her up: she looked at the broken glass in the sink and at her blood tingeing the water with a soft shade of red. That vision sucked her into reality, the Boar's Nest reality: splashing of water in the sink, smell of smoke and beer, men's voices and steps around her as people came in and came out the room.

"Possum on a gum bush, Daisy! Are you OK?"

And his voice.

She wrapped a cloth around her right forefinger, "I'm OK, honey," she glanced at Enos' worried face and she smiled, "don't worry, just a small cut," she knelt down and she opened the shutter near the sink, grabbing the medicine chest.

Her right forefinger useless, she fought with the medicine chest until Enos gently took it off her hands.

"Let me help you, Daisy."

She stared at him opening the small medicine chest and taking her right hand in his one, unwrapping the cloth around her forefinger, staring at the cut, disinfecting it and covering it with a plaster.

"Thanks honey. You're such a gentleman," her smile grew wider, reflecting his wide smile. He was flattered by her compliment; flattering him was so easy, and with a sense of guilty Daisy thought of how many times she flattered him in order to distract him.

"I'm just used to plasters and cuts," he raised his right forefinger, showing a plaster on it, "yesterday I cut my forefinger," he laughed, his usual brief and funny laughing.

Yesterday: Daisy recalled that plaster on his right forefinger and how he was fidgeting with it whereas they were talking in front of the Boar's Nest, her in her wedding dress and him in his tight. She recalled also his hives.

"And how's the hives?" her left forefinger touched gently the shading red marks on his face, tracing a line between a red sign on his right cheek and another one on his chin, "less red than yesterday. Does it hurt?"

He had a step back, parting from her touch, "Uh, no, it doesn't hurt. It itches," his right hand at his nape, scratching it, he blushed, the new red on his skin swallowing the hives' marks.

The image of his naked chest and belly, those red marks on him, provoked a new rush of heat from Daisy's feet to her face.

So vivid, that dream was so vivid: everything surfaced to her mind.

"Are you OK, Daisy?"

She pushed back those vivid and erotic images, "I'm OK, don't worry. It's hot, here, don't you think?" she fanned herself using her hands, "I think it's because of the crowd and … also because of the cut. I admit that blood scares me."

"I thought that nothing could scare you, Daisy," he looked at her with a dreamy smile and his eyes wide open, his adoring way to look at her.

"Oh Enos," she bent forward across the counter, her right elbow on it while her left hand reached his tie, grabbing it but not pulling it to her, "you're really such a gentleman." She stared at his black tie, her fingers testing its fabric as if she was a seamstress.

She didn't pull him to her but he walked closer the counter, relaxed by her friendly gesture and kind words.

"You want a glass of buttermilk, don't you?" she forgot about his tie and she looked up at him.

"Yeah, thanks," he nodded and smiled.

They were at the Boar's Nest and she was a waitress: reality, she focused on reality.

Finally resting her chin on her right hand, her right elbow on the counter, as many times in the past she looked at him drinking his buttermilk, enjoying his final white mustache but repressing her new desire to wipe out that white with a kiss.

* * *

_Her lips pressed against his ones._

_She kissed him, again and again, and, after her kiss, his white mustache were gone._

"_But are you sure you don't want me to prepare breakfast? It would take only few minutes."_

_He shook his head, "I'd like it, but I'd be late at work," his hands reached his tie._

"_OK, I'll prepare you a great dinner," her hands on his ones, she blocked him. She knotted his tie, her fingers rubbing its fabric, "Boss should give you a better tie. It's rough."_

_He shrugged, "Mr. Hogg…" No need of other words._

"_OK. Go, now. Or you'll be late at work, and I don't want Boss fires you," her hand slid from his chest to his belly, enjoying his skin's warmth through his shirt's fabric._

_Looking at him as he came out the kitchen's door of their small farm, Daisy waved him goodbye, smiling._

_After waving him goodbye, her hands rested on her belly, her t-shirt stretched on it: when the life inside her moved, she laughed, "Hey baby, stop kicking your mummy."_

* * *

Rolling on her left side, Daisy thought she was going to squeeze her belly, but when she realized she was lying on her belly, she understood, with surprise, that there was no belly to squeeze, no belly stopping her turning.

Her belly was flat, totally flat.

She sat up in her bed at the farm, looking at her bedroom.

"Oh gosh, what…?" she covered her face with her hands, "Am I goin' crazy?"

* * *

**OK, this is my decision: "Missed chance" is going to become a multi-chaptered story, sort of "Memories?"-reversed.**

**BUT:**

**- It won't be a LONG story. No way I'm going to write another story of 30 chapters, and chapters will be shorter (don't misunderstand me: I've liked writing "Shattered" and "Carry that weight"... but it's too much demanding and binding, and I need something softer and more relaxing).**

**- You'll have a new chapter after I finish "Shattered" (so, be patient) ;-). Now, I'm going to focus TOTALLY on the end of "Shattered".**

**- I've decided to write a shorter and softer story 'cause I need it... and I feel some people out there prefer this kind of stories, from me (though I'm satisfied of my last stories' reception, I need this "jump into the past")**

**- When I say "Memories?"-reversed, it doesn't mean this story will be as "Memories?" (the only link is Daisy dreaming a sort of parallel life). I hope I'm going to entertain and surprise you with a totally new story.**

**See you after "Shattered" :-)**


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